ately--living in my own place,
among my own tenants, in a sleepy little corner of the earth, which
affords no opportunity for adventure. I fear I shall come back with no
heroic deeds to recount!"

"`Do the work that's nearest,
Though it's dull at whiles,
Helping, when you meet them,
Lame dogs o'er the stiles!'"

quoted Nan impressively. "That's one of my pet verses, which I quote to
comfort myself when I am burning to do great deeds, and have to hem
dusters instead. Be thankful you are a man, and have not to hem
dusters; and try to take an interest in your tenants, and help them over
their stiles. I'm sure many of them are lame, and longing for you to
come to their aid; and really and truly it would do you all the good in
the world to think of something beside yourself!"

"I have never yet found any one who interested me so much; but I will
make the effort. And for yourself--look where you are going, think what
you are doing, be a trifle more circumspect in coming downstairs and
bicycling round corners, and I will hope to meet you again in health and
strength and with as few broken limbs as may be at the end of another
month. Goodbye, little friend! All good be with you!"

He held out his hand, and smiled upon her in the slow, kindly fashion
which already seemed familiar in her eyes, and Nan felt a sudden warmth
at her heart, as at the realisation of a new joy in life.

"Good-bye," she cried heartily; "and I'm glad I promised. I'm glad we
are going to be friends."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

JIM RETURNS.

"In work, in work, in work alway, let my young days be passed, that I
may fade away and die, as I am doing f-ast!" sighed Kitty Maitland one
afternoon a month later, as she sat in the porch-room, surrounded with a
mountain of needlework, on which she was laboriously stitching labels,
while the elder girls consulted together as to prices, and Elsie plied
an iron at a side-table, smoothing away disfiguring creases and
crumples. It was amazing to see the quantity of work which had been
gathered together, and nobody was more surprised at the amount than the
workers themselves. When the contents of drawers, ottomans, and
cupboards had been gathered together and laid on the table, the girls
had gasped with amazement. Who could have believed that their little
efforts could have achieved such a whole? Who could have credited that
friends would have come forward with such generous and ready help?